


I'm Friends with the Monster That's Under My Bed

by Hartwin_Casualty (Cody_Thomas)



Series: Bits, Bobs, and Bunnies [5]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 09:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13877727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cody_Thomas/pseuds/Hartwin_Casualty
Summary: Little Eggsy KNOWS there are monsters, he and his mum live with one. He’s so scared of Dean and his big fists and his loud voice, that it never occurs to him to be afraid of the dark, or of the unknown thing under his bed. The dark isn’t filled with screaming, or fists, it’s gentle and it hides him from Dean. The thing under his bed is quiet and steady. So the breathing he hears under there doesn’t scare him, it calms him, and help him fall asleep. He knows it's his friend, Harry.





	I'm Friends with the Monster That's Under My Bed

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a prompt I did for the Dark Kingsman Block Party. 
> 
> Dedicated to Uvecheri, my #1 Cuddle Wife and plot bunny wrangler extraordinaire.

Eggsy has known for a very long time now that monsters are real, they live with one. After Eggsy’s daddy died, his mom had been very very sad, and when Dean had come along she had thought it would be a new start, a second chance for happiness. But Dean is a monster, he’s mean, he screams, sometimes he hits and hurts them, and Eggsy is too little to do anything to help. He hates Dean so much, but he is also scared of him. His fists are just so big and he is really really strong. His mother has mostly been left alone lately though, she’s pregnant, so Dean has been acting nice to her, Eggsy is the one who gets it when Dean gets mad instead. He’s seven, and he’s brave, but he’s not very strong. He still wants to protect his mom, and his baby sister who will be here soon if he can. His mom keeps saying how he’s got to be a good and strong little man and look out for his sister when she arrives, because that’s what good big brothers do, and Eggsy wants to be good at something. 

With a monster as scary as Dean living with them, Eggsy isn’t afraid of something silly like the dark. The dark is quiet and still, and can’t hurt you. The dark can hide you from the monster that stalks down the hall roaring and drunk, it can protect you from the monster, so why would he be afraid of that? The presence under his bed doesn’t scare him either. If it’s hiding down there, then it might be afraid of Dean too. He can hear it moving at night, shifting and skittering as if it has a hundred dozen skittery spider legs, he can feel it bump the bottom of his mattress, and hear its deep steady breathing. The breathing soothes him, it eases him, reassures him that he’s not alone. Ever since his mum married Dean he’s felt alone, and he doesn’t like it. He falls asleep to that deep, steady breathing. It soothes him like nothing else has in a very long while.

Eggsy is laying on his stomach in bed because Dean kicked him really hard over and over in the back last night, and trying to lay on his back or side just hurts way too much. Even breathing hurts. He’s laying on the very edge of the bed so he can breathe better, it’s hard trying to keep his head turned all the time, his neck gets stiff. His arm is hanging over the side, there’s a dark ring of reddish purple bruises around it from where Dean had grabbed his wrist and picked him up by it before throwing him onto the ground. It was swollen and hurt to bend it still.

He hears the monster under his bed, moving and breathing, but tonight it’s not like skittery spider legs, it’s long and slithery movements, like a snake or something. Eggsy likes snakes. They’d had a ball python named Chestnut as a class pet in school last year, and Eggsy had held him several times while they cleaned out the tank. He had liked the smooth skin, and the slightly cool to the touch feel, and the rippling feeling of his muscles when he’d moved. Snakes were really cool, and he’d liked feeding Chestnut the mice they had thawed out from the freezer under the tank.

Eggsy felt the bottom edge of the comforter move a bit and then he felt that familiar cool smooth snake skin slickness wrap around his bruised and swollen wrist, with something that felt like curiosity and concern. The coolness soothed the hurt, so he didn’t pull away.

“It’s alright, it’ll be fine. My back is the bit that hurts more anyway.”

The thing seemed to startle a bit, then let go and slid back under the bed. 

“It’s alright. I won’t hurt you. My name’s Eggsy, what’s yours?”

There was only a still and lingering silence.

“Come on, you’re s’posed to introduce yourself back, that’s manners.”

More silence. Maybe the monster couldn’t talk. 

“Please?” He didn’t mean for his voice to sound so small and a little bit pleading and helpless. But he just wanted to stop feeling all alone and like no one cared about him. 

There was another long pause and Eggsy had all but given up on getting an answer, just sighed and tried not to feel too disappointed. 

“HhAaRrRrYy.” The voice was deep and echoey, and sounded like it came from far away and right behind his shoulder at the same time, it was a rich and smooth, but sort of a hissy slithery voice that reminded him of unseen things lingering in the dark. It made him feel warm.

“Harry? That’s a nice name. Why do you live under the bed? It can’t be very comfortable can it? Floor’s all hard. The bed’s nicer if you want to come up.”

“CcAaNn’Tt. LlIiGgHhTt HhUuRrTtSs.”

There was a little night light over by the door that cast a dim glow, so Eggsy could make it to the loo if he needed to get up in the night. He wanted to get up right away and turn it off, but moving hurt too much at the moment. 

“If I turn off the night light, will you come out?”

“NnOo. AaLlLl LlIiGgHhTtSs.”

The window wasn’t dark enough either then, and he couldn’t do anything about that just yet.

“Tomorrow I’ll try and find something. Hurts to move right now, and I don’t want Dean to wake up. Okay?”

“MmMmMmMm CcUuRrIiOoUuSs.”

“What’s curious?”

“YyOoUu. SsLlEeEePp CcHhIiLlDd. SsAaFfEe NnOoWw.”

For some reason, Eggsy believed Harry. He closed his eyes and before he fell asleep he felt four of those smooth and cool snake like fingers? Hands? Arms? Slip their way up under the comforter again. One curled gently around his wrist again, one rested over his shoulders and lightly smoothed down over his hair again and again and it felt really nice, and the other two slipped under the bottom of his shirt, stroking and soothing over his hot and bruised back from top to bottom. The weight of them hurt a bit, and he tried to bite back a hiss of pain, because the cold feeling was welcome, so he didn’t want them to go away, not really. Eggsy heard more than felt something in his chest shift with a crunching sound that made him whimper, but he could breathe much better a moment later.

“Thanks.” Eggsy murmured, more than half asleep now that worst of the sharp, stabbing pain had stopped, leaving only a quickly dulling ache.

Harry didn’t speak again, but the cool touch stayed there and eased him until he could finally fall asleep. 

The next day was Saturday, and when Eggsy woke up he actually felt quite a bit better. He was normally a lot more sore and stiff for a few days after a run in with Dean than he was feeling right then. There was no sign of Harry, but then, it was daylight, so he was probably hiding from it. He took his shower and brushed his teeth, then had cereal in front of the telly, since Dean would be down at the pub most of the day and tended to get an early start on Saturdays. Eggsy’s mum was still in bed, so he kept it low. Once he’d rinsed out his bowl he snuck as quiet as he could to the big cupboard where they kept all of the sheets and towels, the big winter comforters, and the tablecloths they had inherited from his nan that they never used. Waaaay down at the bottom, in the back, were the big, thick blackout curtains that had also been his nan’s from back during the Blitz. They had been in the same box as the tablecloths, and his mum just hadn’t gotten rid of them even though she didn’t like them. His nan had never thrown anything away, which worked out just fine for Eggsy this time. 

He hauled the thick and heavy curtains and the step ladder into his room, and fought first to open the ladder, and then with his curtain rod to get it off the hooks, before he could finally take down the thin curtains he had now. When he finally got the thicker ones on and then back up onto the window, which was hard because they were a lot heavier, his room was plunged into complete darkness until his night light turned on, and Eggsy smiled. He flicked on the room light and unplugged his night light, then quickly put the ladder away and stuffed his old curtains into the back of the big closet where the other ones had been. His mum wasn’t likely to notice, she never looked in the back.

Once he double checked that his mum was still sleeping, he kept the telly on low for noise so she wouldn’t hear him talking, and then shut himself back up in his room, stuffed a shirt along the door crack, then turned out the lights and crouched down by his bed. 

“Pssst! Harry? Are you down there? Is this okay?”

He couldn’t see anything in his room, let alone anything that might be under his bed, but he wasn’t necessarily hearing anything either.

“Harry? I made it dark. You can come out if you like.”

Two great big glowing eyes opened under his bed and looked right at him. They were solid light, no visible pupil, but he knew they were seeing him.

“EGGSY.”

His voice wasn’t all from far away and behind him today, or hissy slithery, but it was the same tone, same voice, and Eggsy smiled.

“Hey Harry. Is this dark enough?”

It was strange not being able to see anything except those two glowing eyes in the pitch dark room, and yet somehow Eggsy was still able to see the smoky tendrils curl out from beneath the bed as an even deeper darkness. They felt cool and wispy when one brushed against his cheek, like the fog that creeped through the streets some days.

“YES.” 

Eggsy smiled. The tendrils of smoke grew thicker and heavier as Harry crawled out from under the bed. He was huge, his eyes glowed from up near the ceiling when he stood up. Eggsy had no idea how Harry could even start to fit in the small space under his bed. 

“Wow. You’re really tall. How do you fit down there? Even I can barely fit down there!”

“MAGIC.”

“Really?! Is that what you did with my back? It felt much better this morning. Can you show me? Would be dead useful when Dean’s angry.”

“PERHAPS.”

Two of those wispy tendrils curled around him, they went over his face, spread out, and Eggsy felt the cool mistiness press into his ears, up his nose, down his throat, and even over his eyes, but it didn’t hurt or make him choke or anything. He could breathe just fine. It just felt like wisps of mist. They pulled back after a moment.

“YES, I CAN TEACH YOU. YOU HAVE THE POTENTIAL.”

“Wicked!”

“YOU MUST ASK PROPERLY.”

“How do I do that?”

“CAN’T SAY. RULES. MUST FIND IT YOURSELF. FOR NOW...”

Harry switched something in Eggsy’s vision, and suddenly Eggsy could see in the dark. But not just that, he could see Other Things. He could see Harry of course, all tall, smoky, shifting shadows, able to become literally anything he wanted. But also the tiny blue flickering lights just on the outside of his vision, the little beings peeking from around his shoes in the closet, he could even sort of see/feel/sense the presence of something big and scary outside. 

“W-what is that?” Eggsy asked. He didn’t like it, it made him feel scared.

“DEMON. MINOR ONE.”

Eggsy DEFINITELY didn’t want to meet a major one then. Eggsy went over and hugged Harry, scared a bit, and finding comfort in the big, smoky arms.

“DON’T WORRY. CAN’T HARM YOU YET. TOO INNOCENT. TOO YOUNG. VERY SLOW. TAKES TIME. DEMON OF VICE. ADDICTION. ATTACKS THOSE ALREADY WEAKENED. PARASITE, NOT PREDATOR. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE, LIKE PIGEONS.”

Somehow, that comforted Eggsy a lot, even though it meant there were a lot more of them out there. He and Harry talked for the next couple of hours, about magic, and learning more about each other, just chatting all friendly like, until he heard his mum turn the channel on the telly and move to make coffee in the kitchen.

“I gotta go, or she might just open the door whenever.”

“TONIGHT THEN. REMEMBER, LOOK CLOSELY. PAY ATTENTION. THE ANSWER WILL COME WHEN YOU WANT IT ENOUGH.”

Eggsy didn’t really understand, but Harry’s form had already collapsed into a thin cloud of smoky mist that quickly moved back under the bed. Eggsy opened up the curtains once Harry was gone, so his mother wouldn’t get suspicious, and untucked the shirt from the edge of the door. He was getting hungry again too, so he figured it was as good a time as any to maybe scrounge up some lunch. Maybe he and his mum could have some beans on toast, or she’d be craving another pizza.

The rest of Eggsy’s day went by rather uneventfully, even if he did end up looking at a bunch of things that weren’t visible to a lot of other people. He went down the way to play with his mates Ryan, Brandon, and Jamal. Afterwards he got a couple quid for helping the little old lady down on the first floor haul in all her shopping and unpack it. A bit later he ran down to the corner store for his mum to pick her up the candy she was craving and a magazine to keep her happy, because the doctors had her on as much rest as possible since she’d been a bit anemic, so she was going a bit stir crazy cooped up in the flat almost all the time.

It was getting to be late afternoon and Eggsy was hanging around by the tiny slip of a park about a block away from his flat when he saw something glowing faintly over by a bush, and he got the strangest impression that it was hurt. When he knelt down to look closer, he saw an actual fairy, wings and all, trapped under the bottom half of a broken bottle, the glass pinning one of its wings down and probably injuring it badly. 

The poor thing looked like it was losing strength fast, so Eggsy freed it and scooped it up as gently as he could into the bottom of the bottle. The moment the little thing was freed he started breathing better, but his wing was quite obviously broken badly. Eggsy smuggled him home fast as he could, and tried to remember all the things he needed to know about fairies. He unfortunately couldn’t remember much. He grabbed an old shoebox from his closet, stuffed it with a folded hand towel, then laid the fairy out as gently as he could into it. 

Eggsy had learned a bit about first aide in school, but he had no idea if splinting a fairy wing would be enough to save it, but maybe it would be enough to help long enough for the poor thing to get to a fairy doctor or whatever the equivalent was. He only had toothpicks, cotton swabs, loo paper, cotton balls, and some adhesive bandages to work with, but with some careful maneuvering and a bit of clever work, it seemed enough to at least make a supporting brace that held the wing back into the proper shape without putting weight on it. He could tell the fairy was in a lot of pain, but he didn’t think it would be able to take human medicine to make it stop. 

“I’ll get you some warm water and stuff so you can wash up. I’ll be right back, alright?” 

They’d had takeout for dinner last night, and one of the lidded sauce containers would work quite well for after he washed it out. He made double sure it was clean before filling it with bath temp water and putting the lid back on so it wouldn’t spill, then scratched a couple curls of soap from off the bar on the sink with a knife, tore off a small bit from the edge of the new sponge, and grabbed a couple paper towels while he was at it. He tore a quarter of one into a couple decent fairy sized bath towels and set those, the soap, and sponge on the lid after opening the fairy’s bath for it.

“There you go. I’ll close the lid most of the way to give you some privacy.”

Eggsy propped a pen up in the corner of the shoe box to keep the lid from fully shutting. While he was waiting for the fairy to finish, he made a quick little bed by folding the rest of the paper towel several times, unrolling two cotton balls to stuff between the top most layer for comfort, and then pushing toothpicks into the corners for legs. It felt pretty soft and cushy when he squeezed it, and should at least do for the night.

Eggsy raided the old sewing box his nan had kept, and that he had stashed in his closet when Dean had been pitching fits and breaking things a few months ago. There was a brass thimble and two porcelain ones with flower patterns on them, that just might serve as something a fairy could use. Eggsy washed them carefully, put a few drops of milk in one, whiskey in another, and a drop of honey in the last one. On an extra toothpick he put little bits of bread and cheese, and even a piece of candied pineapple from the box he’d gotten for Christmas. He had been hoarding it carefully to make sure it lasted as long as possible, but this was a good time to share a piece. His mum still wasn’t paying attention, watching telly as he tried acting normal while sneaking back to his room with everything. 

Even though the little fairy had cleaned up, he was eyeing Eggsy quite warily when he got back and offered him the bits of food and drink, and set the makeshift bed into the box. But Eggsy couldn’t really blame him, he was a stranger after all, and must seem like a giant to the little fairy. 

“I brought you a snack if you’re hungry, I can bring you a bit more after dinner. Sorry for the box, I know you tend to like living places, or fancier looking things, but at least it’s warm and clean. You wouldn’t like it in the house plant, trust me. Dean uses it for an ashtray. I don’t know how to reach anyone who can fix up your wing proper like, but if you do, I can probably get you there if it’s close by. Not until tomorrow though, it’s too late for tonight.” 

The little fairy didn’t say anything, but picked up the toothpick with a small smile. Eggsy smiled back and left the fairy to its dinner as he went off to have his own. When he came back it was with a sauce lid with a tiny bit of rice, veg, a slice of water chestnut, and a bit of teriyaki chicken he’d snuck away, in case the fairy wanted something else, and it had been really good tonight, so he wanted to share. The fairy was sitting on the makeshift bed wrapped in a bit of paper towel, its clothes had been washed and laid out on a section of the towelled floor, and it had also eaten about half of the food.

“Hey. Brought you some other stuff. I hope you like it. I’m gonna clean up before bed, you need anything else?”

The little fairy pointed at the bathwater and made as if it were drinking, then offered up one of the now empty thimbles.

“Water. Okay, that’s easy. Anything else?”

The little dance the fairy made next was universally recognizable. A potty. 

“OH! Yeah. That’s really important too. Okay. do you need one right now?” 

The fairy shook its head no, so he had some time.

“Give me a couple minutes to figure that one out then, but I can make it work.”

He took his pjs into the bathroom, brushed his teeth, took his shower, dumped the fairy’s dirty bath water, rinsed out the container and the thimbles, then refilled them with more water for his guest and took it back to his room, then set about solving the potty issue. In the end he found another sauce container and cleaned it out, cut a piece out of the lid, and then put some loo paper in the bottom, along with some extra sheets for the fairy to use. 

When he put the makeshift toilet in the box and saw the fairy was still wearing the piece of paper towel, he figured the fairy was probably cold, seeing as it’s clothes were still wet. He had a sock in his drawer that he had worn through the toe on, and thought it would do nicely with some adjustments. He cut it off at the heel and opened both sides so the fairy’s head could go through the hole, and not mess with its wings. He cut a thin loop off for a belt, and then cut open the other piece to use for a blanket on the bed. It should at least do for the night. The fairy seemed quite pleased with everything, and all in all seemed to be doing much better, which made Eggsy happy. 

Not long after, Eggsy was ready for bed himself, and tucked the box gently into his closet so the fairy wouldn’t be disturbed in case Dean came in or something. Once the lights were out, it wasn’t long until Eggsy heard the deep breathing under his bed, calm and slow as the earth, and it made him feel warm all over.

“It’s okay Harry, lights are out.” Harry eased out from under the bed and took his wispy, shadowy form. Eggsy smiled wide and told Harry all about the rest of his day, and the fairy he had found. “Do you think there’s a fairy doctor you can help me take it to or something?”

Harry insisted on seeing the little thing for himself and the fairy startled quite badly at seeing Harry peering into the box.

“IT’S A PIXIE.” Harry said, sounding both surprised and unimpressed at the same time.

“Is that okay? It hasn’t tried to hurt me.” Eggsy defended, feeling quite protective of the poor little thing.

“YOU SAVED ITS LIFE, IT OWES YOU ITS LIFE. IT HAD BEST ACCEPT THE DEBT, GRANT ITS PROTECTION, AND NOT TRY TO TRICK YOU OR ANYONE YOU CARE ABOUT IF IT WANTS TO STAY ALIVE.” Harry said with a rather cold and sharp glare. The pixie went pale and nodded its head. Harry eased Eggsy’s finger into the box, and the pixie kissed Eggsy’s knuckle.

“GOOD.” Harry said and then turned as if it was of no more interest to him than that. 

“Can we help it or heal it?”

“NO. EITHER ITS MAGIC IS STRONG ENOUGH SO IT RECOVERS, OR IT WILL DIE. IT LIKELY WON’T FLY PROPERLY AGAIN. WING INJURIES RARELY HEAL. YOU MIGHT WISH TO NAME IT. PIXIES DO NOT HAVE INBORN NAMES LIKE OTHER FAE DO, AND CALLING AN UNKNOWN FAE IS NOT SAFE.”

Eggsy named the pixie Flutterbee, and it did recover after a couple of weeks, but Harry was right that its wing didn’t let it fly well or for very long. Eggsy spent a lot of time making Flutterbee a much better house, which the pixie loved. 

Harry had eventually given him the clue that a fae bound to him had to grant him favors and information, and through Flutterbee Eggsy learned that Harry needed a certain type of pact, willingly offered, before he could teach him magic. 

The straight pin hurt as Eggsy poked the side of his thumb until a drop of blood welled up, but it was nothing compared to other pains he’d had. He held his finger out to Harry. “I wish to learn magic, it’s yours, if you teach me everything you know of magic in exchange.”

“CLOSE. BUT IT IS ENOUGH. THE FIRST LESSON SHALL BE HOW TO MAKE A PACT PROPERLY.”

Harry licked the blood off of Eggsy’s finger and then began teaching him magic. He took to it like a duck to water, and spent hours learning after school, on weekends, and at night. Harry often sat up on the bed and Eggsy curled up in his lap while Harry taught him magic until he fell asleep. That became the norm, every night at bedtime Eggsy fell asleep safe in Harry’s arms. If he was ever scared or hiding from Dean he could crawl under the bed into the deep darkness and have Harry hold him. Harry could make Silence, so even if Dean came in, He wouldn’t be able to hear him. Eggsy considered that a huge plus.

**Author's Note:**

> Original prompt: Little Eggsy KNOWS there are monsters, he and his mum live with one. He’s so scared of Dean and his big fists and his loud voice, that it never occurs to him to be afraid of the dark, or of the unknown thing under his bed. The dark isn’t filled with screaming, or fists, it’s gentle and it hides him from Dean. The thing under his bed is quiet and steady. So the breathing he hears under there doesn’t scare him, it calms him, and help him fall asleep.
> 
> He eventually starts talking to it, asking why it lives under there, wouldn’t up on the bed with Eggsy be more comfortable than the hard floor? But Harry can’t stand the light, even a nightlight can hurt him, so Eggsy makes his room as dark as he can so that Harry can come out, so they can talk and become better friends. And Harry even makes it so that Eggsy can see in the dark. His tall new friend is gentle, even though he has long claws, and Eggsy can see sharp teeth when Harry smiles.
> 
> Harry hates the bruises Dean leaves on Eggsy, hates the fear and the tears in his eyes that Harry himself didn’t put there. He tells Eggsy that whenever he’s scared, to come hide under the bed and he will protect him.
> 
> When Dean goes too far and hits the baby, Eggsy kicks his stepfather to get him off of her, grabs his sister, and books it to his room, sliding under the bed and into Harry’s waiting arms just in time. Dean’s last mistake is reaching under the bed for Eggsy.
> 
> Bonus if Eggsy (with his sister or not) eventually runs away with Harry.


End file.
